The Defense Department is facing significant challenges and changes in the coming months and years, and with a mandate to streamline and cut spending, acquisition is emerging as a critical area. DOD officials expect to see big changes in acquisition, whether they involve reforming how the military buys its weapons, IT, services and other goods; improving the workforce in charge of purchasing; or handing off certain responsibilities.

House Small Business Committee, is introducing a pair of bills Feb. 26 designed to increase small firms’ participation in federal contracting and improve the quality of contracting data. The Greater Opportunities for Small Business Act would raise the percentage of small businesses among prime federal contract recipients from 23 percent to 25 percent, and the percentage of subcontract recipients to not less than 40 percent of the total.

Contract protests are on the rise—with sustained protests more than doubling over the past 5 years. From anecdotal evidence, it appears that over the past 1-2 years, they have gone up even more. Among the agencies we meet with, we are hearing stories of up to half of acquisitions being protested when the dollar amounts are high and especially in IT. It seems what was once taboo is now just a normal cost of doing business.

If this is the new normal in government acquisitions, then agencies would be wise to plan for this also. I propose that you build ‘protest planning’ into your evaluations as well.

According to a 2012 GAO Protest Report, the number of sustained protests on federal procurements have doubled over the past 5 years. Protests can cause an immense amount of stress and strain on any agency, as they are forced to put a halt to important projects and devote their time and resources to gathering materials, conducting forensics, and responding to questions from investigators. How can agencies reduce the chance that they will end up in a costly protest?

Agencies are required to meet small business contracting goals but every year, it is only a small percentage that actually comes close. Why is this? One very simple reason is that information on qualified small businesses does not flow to the CORs who are conducting market research.

Contract oversight can be like buying a car. You walk the lot and find a real beauty of a car—shiny, blue, just like you always wanted, and at a price you can afford. You start to fall in love with it, and know you should ask to look under the hood. But do you really want to take a look?

If you do look under the hood, chances are you will see some flaws. They might be little problems, or they could be catastrophic. The question is, how hard do you want to look?

In every organization, there are the superstars and there are those who are struggling. The level of skills and capabilities can vary greatly across members of the acquisition team. But what happens when you are one of the superstars?

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